I've heard a couple of sermons recently that told me that if I give God everything I am, put Him at the centre of my life and nurture my relationship with Him by pursuing intimacy in that relationship, God will open the gates of Heaven and do great things for and through me. What a nice thought.
It's not a thought I'm prepared to entertain for long though. How can we preach that in the West and see the suffering of the third world? The most committed and devotional Christians in the world are those who suffer untold and unthinkable persecution. Such Christians are often beaten, killed, jailed and threatened and yet remain more committed to a relationship with God the Father the likes of which I long for.
Our pursuit of relational intimacy in our daily devotion to Christ is the essence of true worship, and the preachers to which I refer would have me believe that my worship, my devotion, my commitment to Him makes God sit up and take notice of me. That I can affect Heaven, because of my actions. That my worship makes God move.
And yet, everything I read in scripture points to a different God. Not one who moves with power in accordance to my effort, but One who moves in power anyway. As I journey through my Christian life I have discovered an amazing truth - God is worth it. So I will nuture intimacy in my relationship with Him, I will be devoted to study Him, I will love Him and do my utmost to reflect His glory like an echo in all I do everyday - not because I want Him to sit up, take notice and do something amazing, but because He has already sat up, taken notice and has done something amazing.
I will worship Him because of what He has done through His redemptive work on the cross - whether He, the sovereign God, choses to move in power or not.
